Forgotten Hard Rock Albums: Warrant, "Dog Eat Dog" (1992)

Warrant - DOG EAT DOG (Columbia Records, 1992)

In the early 1990s we witnessed one of the most shocking (and fastest) changing-of-the-guards in American rock music history. With just four words - "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - a previously unknown, unkempt band from the Pacific Northwest named Nirvana suddenly blasted onto MTV, radio and the top of the Billboard charts, virtually destroying the reigning "Hair Metal" scene single handedly. Seemingly overnight, the pretty boy party-rock bands who'd been enjoying multi-platinum success a year earlier began crashing en masse into the brick wall known as Grunge Rock. Most "hair bands" were dropped from their record labels, split up and disappeared off the face of the Earth, but a few survivors eventually crawled from the wreckage and attempted to change with the times. One of those bands was Warrant, led by charismatic songwriter/vocalist Jani Lane (1964-2011). Their third major label release, 1992's Dog Eat Dog, was mostly overlooked when it was current but it has developed a devoted cult following in the years since, with some Warrant fans going so far as to say that it's their best and most mature album.

Lane told a now-famous story in many interviews about his band's experience at the dawn of the Grunge Decade: he recalled walking into the offices of Columbia Records for a meeting before the release of Warrant's soon-to-be-multi-platinum Cherry Pie album in 1990 and saw a gigantic blow up poster of the album's cover hanging behind the secretary's desk. Lane naturally said to himself, "Cool, we're a priority band!" Two years later, however, when he went to the same office for a meeting prior to the release of Dog Eat Dog there was a giant Alice in Chains poster behind that secretary's desk instead. Lane immediately thought, "Uh-oh." The writing was (literally) on the wall.

"Machine Gun" (1992)

The Album...

Lane and Warrant had to walk a fine line with Dog EatDog, toughening up their sound in hopes of improving their "street cred" without alienating their core fanbase - which, whether the band wanted to admit it or not, relied mainly on teenage girls who swooned over power ballads like "Heaven" and "I Saw Red." The Dog Eat Dog album cover - a rendering of two heavily tattooed canine creatures viciously biting their own arms - was the first hint at Warrant's leaner-and-meaner mindset, as was their choice of producer. Beau Hill, who had manned the boards for Warrant's first two albums, was known mainly for slick AOR and "80s metal" sounding records, so he was replaced by Michael Wagener, a veteran of grittier recordings by Metallica, Accept and Megadeth as well as Skid Row's then recent Slave to the Grind, which had tweaked that band's sound in a heavier direction and still debuted at #1 on Billboard.

"Andy Warhol Was Right"

The Songs...

Lane obviously knew that songs about threesomes and comparing women's body parts to pastries (ala the previous album's "Love In Stereo" and "Cherry Pie") weren't going to cut it in this brave new world. (He would later publicly admit that he'd hated "Cherry Pie" anyway, and had only written it under last minute pressure from label suits to produce a "hit single.") With that in mind, many of Lane's lyrics for Dog Eat Dog were more adventurous and personal than ever before. Though the opening tracks "Machine Gun" ("love my little baby like a ma-ma-ma-machine gun") and "Hole In My Wall" are fairly typical sex-drugs-n-rock-n-roll business as usual for Warrant, the album soon takes a darker turn with a look into a possible apocalyptic future ("April 2031") and the album's moody highlight track, "Andy Warhol Was Right." - a disturbing examination of an ordinary person's obsession with the rich and famous, which eventually leads to murder ("I wanna bathe in your light... I wanna be on the news. if I take your life, it's nothing personal... just a boy and his toy gun, dying for attention").

"The Bitter Pill"

Aside from the oddball "Bitter Pill," a misguided attempt to mix Sunset Strip hard rock with the multi-tracked grandiosity of Queen (it even features an out-of-nowhere "Bohemian Rhapsody" style opera interlude in the middle, sung in German) and the awesome "Inside Out," a high speed rave up which is about as close as we'll ever get to hearing Warrant do thrash metal, the remainder of the tracks on Dog Eat Dog don't stray very far from typical Warrant territory. "Hollywood (So Far, So Good)" is a sarcastic look at the band's experience in the music business meat grinder, while "All My Bridges Are Burning" and "Let It Rain" are satisfactory melodic rockers. Wagener's production lends extra bite to the gang-shouted "Bonfire" and the album closes with the semi-acoustic ballad "Sad Theresa," which is a worthy sequel to "I Saw Red."

Ultraphobic (1995) | Source

Aftermath...

Dog Eat Dog was released by Columbia Records in August of 1992 and though it managed to reach #25 on the Billboard charts and eventually achieved Gold Record status (500,000 copies sold), the album was seen as a failure compared to its multi-platinum predecessors, and Columbia Records soon dropped the band. Despite the lukewarm reception to Dog Eat Dog, Lane and Warrant kept trying to navigate the often-difficult musical waters of the 1990s. After signing to CMC International - an indie label which built up an impressive roster of formerly big-name hard rock, metal, and classic rock bands who'd been abandoned by the major labels - they went on to release Ultraphobic (1995) and Belly to Belly (1996) for a smaller but still appreciative audience. Sadly, Jani Lane's struggles with depression and alcohol, as well as his frustration with the music business in general, began taking their toll on his health.. Lane's last recording with Warrant was the 2001 covers album Under the Influence. After several unsuccessful attempts at launching a solo career and an abortive reunion of the classic Warrant lineup, Jani Lane was found dead of acute alcohol poisoning in a California hotel room in August of 2011. He was 47 years old

Warrant has released two studio albums with replacement singers (2006's Born Again, with ex-Black N Blue vocalist Jamie St. James, and 2011's Rockaholic, with former Lynch Mob singer Robert Mason) and continue to tour to this day.

"This isn't the Warrant You're Looking For."

Source

Buyer Beware:

Helpful hint: if this review has intrigued you and you want to go searching for a copy of this CD, make sure you don't accidentally pick up Warrant, a 1992 EP by the New Jersey based hardcore band Dog Eat Dog. The title of the EP (which was released the same year as Warrant's album) is obviously a lighthearted jab at Warrant from the Dog Eat Dog guys for using "their" name as an album title, but as the years have passed it seems that people aren't doing their homework before clicking the "BUY NOW" button and missing the joke. One angry Amazon review for the hardcore band's CD reads, "Don't make the mistake I did! I thought this was a release from the hair metal band WARRANT ... my impression of this band: they need music lessons and can't sing for sh*t!"

Comments 9 comments

Yep, it was a sad, bad "hair" day when grunge arrived. The 90s were so depressing! Was sad to see Warrant head down the path to decline. Oh well... Thanks for the tribute to one of the fun hair metal bands!

FatFreddysCat 23 months ago from The Garden State Author

Hi heidithorne - they may have eventually succumbed to the Grunge plague but at least they went down fighting... thanks for stopping by.

Thief12 23 months ago from Puerto Rico

Nice review. I like Dog Eat Dog and listen to it from time to time. I also think Ultraphobic is pretty good.

As for the state of rock at the time, the fate suffered by hair rock bands in the 90's came back to bite grunge bands later. As most things in life, it's a cycle, and when grunge died, most of those bands that were so famous disappeared as well.

For what it's worth, I saw Warrant live (with Jani Lane) in the 2002 or 2003, I guess, and they gave a pretty great show.

FatFreddysCat 23 months ago from The Garden State Author

Hi Thief - yep, I liked "Ultraphobic" quite a bit too. The one after that, though ("Belly To Belly") -- ehhh, not so much.

Thief12 23 months ago from Puerto Rico

I don't think I ever listened to that one.

FatFreddysCat 23 months ago from The Garden State Author

You didn't miss much, haha. They took the full-on alternative plunge on that record. It's awful!

Thief12 23 months ago from Puerto Rico

Hehe, I guess I can check it out someday on YouTube just to see what you mean.